eG Foodblog: fengyi - Win(e)ing and Dining in Beijing

[Domestic Goddess]

I am so excited about this blog. I had a chance to fly to Beijing once but throught some stupidity by my travel agent, I ended up in Xiamen instead.

That is so cool about korean home delivery there. I love it! Here in our tiny town, I love ordering our meals and just setting out the dirty plates, bowls, cutlery and even condiments that come with the food delivery.

*Peter - you're not off the hook yet with your travelogue. Git yer butt back in there and post some more foodie pics/prose.

[Fengyi]

Today is back to the usual grey -beige skies after TWO whole days of reasonably blue ones. I even saw a CLOUD yesterday from my taxi window. It was so lovely!

crustybread: I would definitely come here as soon as possible *after* the Olympics. There'll be plenty of hotel space, the monuments will all be clean, hopefully some of the social behaviour rules (no spitting, queuing, etc..) will still have some effect. . . in all, a good time to come!

shelby:I think this is a Korean thing. Chinese restaurants don't do it. When they deliver the food, they usually say something like "4pm pickup OK?" and you just leave the dirty dishes by the door for when they come.

I LOVE it!

Wine in China is off to a very SMALL start. Trouble is, everyone says...oooh market of 1.3 billion. Well, nothing here (maybe cooking oil...) has that sort of market. Here only the elite would be buying imported wine.

The average price of a large beer in the supermarket is about 3RMB (for 500mL) whereas the cheapest bottle of domestically-produced wine is about 35RMB. Big price differential!

To help keep prices in mind:

A basic wage to just survive here would be about 2000RMB - That's for a rented room in the cheap part of the city, public transport only, cooking at home with little meat, etc...

A starting good white-collar salary for an educated Chinese person would be between 5000-10,000RMB.

And there's the silly money. The guy who can buy 100 cases of Chateau Lafite for casual drinking (10,000USD!), the person who owns the bright yellow Hummer you see around town, the man I met who was designing and having constructed his own 3000m2 cellar for fun.....

Rent for a one bedroom apartment in a Western standard apartment is about 6000RMB a month. For a Chinese good apartment about 4000RMB. Utilities are quite cheap (our internet+local phone line comes to 170RMB a month). I hope that helps place things in context. Our hot pot last night was about 140RMB.

I will try and go to a market or two this week - there's a very interesting one near us which is the restaurant whole-sale market!

[Kent Wang]

Did you used to cook a lot before moving to China? Do you miss all the things you could buy back in the UK that you can't get in China? What are the items that you miss the most?

[Fengyi]

Did you used to cook a lot before moving to China? Do you miss all the things you could buy back in the UK that you can't get in China? What are the items that you miss the most?

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I used to cook A LOT before moving to China!!! There was no other option particularly as I tend to like Northern Chinese and Korean food. Fortunately, you *can* hunt down the proper ingredients in the UK (with trouble!) so you can make things at home.

I even used to devote whole weekends to making jiaozi, shaobing and spring rolls to freeze!

It's so much better being in China! You can buy just about anything here (except Mango chutney and lime pickle - we will accept any offers to bring Geeta's mango chutney here!).

For instance, within walking distance I have a proper french bakery, about 200 Chinese restaurants, a belgium steak and frites place, Pizza delivery (italian style and US style), Persian food, many Korean places, Japanese, Mediterranean, French brasseries, Italian panotecas and even Hooters!!!!

That's just my immediate neighbourhood!

There is honestly very little I miss from the UK (we even have two great Fish and Chips places here in Beijing - one in a lovely ancient Hutong where you can sit on the roof and admire the ancient scenery and have a full English breakfast!).

Maybe proper Pork Pies, Mango Chutney and Marks and Spenser Assam tea. But not much.

It's SO SO much better here in terms of pure culinary enjoyment!

We've even got a Fauchon for upmarket French cheeses and LOVELY eclairs.

You can get anything here just about - but you just have to pay the price. Mind you, a Fauchon baguette is about 14 RMB -which is amazing considering even the flour comes from France!

Honestly, it beats living in Cambridge hands down - I used to pay SO much money to buy Chinese things there (tongxincai from Thailand, laoganma hot sauce at over £2!).

And you can get such a wider variety of things here than in the UK.

And Shanghai is just as good (some would say even better)!

[Fengyi]

And before I get too excited about how much great food I can eat here, I'll get back to the actual food I'm eating!

Breakfast was the same old smoothie (I forgot to go over to Fauchon after work yesterday so no baguettes!).

Lunch presented me with a dilemma - I know I won't be eating in much this week between work stuff and friends, so we should clear the fridge:

I found these rolling about: some frozen squid (which has to be cleared because we have a on=going smell problem with our freezer - from a summertime 6 week power outage=rotten meat incident), carrots, potatoes, green peppers, Hangzhou peppers, some garlic sprouts that my husband bought thinking they were green onions (he can't read Chinese...)some VERY LONG noodles and some:

So-called Pig Stomach Mushrooms

The squid was protected from the freezer smell by a recycled box - I thought I would post it here because it's quite funny!

It's for "yoghurt-fed pigs" and as you can see, the little piggy in the corner has graduated from the yoghurt-eating academy...I don't think this label would go down too well most places but they love it here!

Anyway, I decided to make Maewoon Ojingau Bokum (sp?) the fried chile squid with veggies on noodles as it seemed to use up what was needed.

The noodles were my favourite Very Long Noodles:

These are the noodles *folded in half*.

Well, I boiled up the noodles, stirred fried the veggies, garlic, ginger and the squid, added kojuchang paste with sesame oil (didn't have sesame seeds) some chile powder, sugar, salt and a touch of light soya sauce and voila:

A massive portion of Maewoon Ojingau Bokum - to keep us going until tonight's wine dinner at Aria restaurant (one of Beijing's most exclusive and holder of a Wine Spectator Wine List Award). We're meeting a wine importing company that's based in Shanghai and who are hoping to bring their wines to Beijing. We're going to be tasting a lot from their portfolio so I may not be in any fit state to blog tonight!!

It's not often that I work from home - but being the boss always helps! It's been nice to cook for a change

[Kent Wang]

Oh, I'm sure you're right that the bounty of Chinese foods will outweigh all the Western things you can't get. But can you tell me a little bit about how restricted the selection of the following imported goods are:

Wine - I'm sure you know all about this!

Beer - Especially Belgian ales

Liquor - Smaller distribution brands (not like the majors like Grey Goose, Johnnie Walker, Remy Martin, etc.) like Flor de Cana rum, El Milagro tequila, Laird's Applejack.

Cheeses - You mentioned upmarket cheeses at Fauchon. Do they have brie de maux, epoisses, Neal's Yard cheddar, Beemster gouda, to name a few of the fairly widely distributed fine cheeses that I enjoy.

Charcuterie - Especially Italian and Spanish

I also have a crazy idea to start an import company to get all things that I want from the West that aren't imported yet, especially in the beer and liquor departments.

So if you go out to eat a lot more now, do you find this to be less healthy than your diet back in the UK? Especially since I find so much restaurant food in China to be so greasy -- maybe even more so than American restaurants.

[insomniac]

Fengyi, excellent stuff...your remark about having 2 fish and chips places reminds me of being in HK listening to an interview on the radio with the Brit who was a partner in one of them....she related that her local partner was extremely enthusiastic about the taste of fish and chips when he'd been interviewed in Beijing, but she thought it would be better if he didn't say that they were delicious but that if you ate too much you would vomit....

[Fengyi]

Oh, I'm sure you're right that the bounty of Chinese foods will outweigh all the Western things you can't get. But can you tell me a little bit about how restricted the selection of the following imported goods are:

Wine - I'm sure you know all about this!

Beer - Especially Belgian ales

Liquor - Smaller distribution brands (not like the majors like Grey Goose, Johnnie Walker, Remy Martin, etc.) like Flor de Cana rum, El Milagro tequila, Laird's Applejack.

Cheeses - You mentioned upmarket cheeses at Fauchon. Do they have brie de maux, epoisses, Neal's Yard cheddar, Beemster gouda, to name a few of the fairly widely distributed fine cheeses that I enjoy.

Charcuterie - Especially Italian and Spanish

I also have a crazy idea to start an import company to get all things that I want from the West that aren't imported yet, especially in the beer and liquor departments.

So if you go out to eat a lot more now, do you find this to be less healthy than your diet back in the UK? Especially since I find so much restaurant food in China to be so greasy -- maybe even more so than American restaurants.

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Hi! I really don't find that there is any Western food that I can't get here.... (excepting the few above- mango chutney!). But to answer you fully:

Wine: there is a surprisingly wide range here. I've got a nice Saumur on my desk (albeit corked) at the moment. There's hundreds of companies importing wine into China into what is NOT a big market. From these I can find just about anything - not stuff like really old Madeiras and the sherry selection is shocking, some gaps in stuff like Jurancon sec but then, those sorts of wines are harder to find anywhere in the world (except London, New York, etc...)

Beer: The local pizza place has several dozen types of Belgium beers - as does the Carrefour. I can buy Abbot Ale here *cheaper* than I can in the UK! and it's delivered to my door for free! For brewhouses, there's quite a few in Beijing. There's also a HUGE supply of Baltika for those who like the Russian experience...

Liquor - the rarer brands are harder to get but then again, you can always find something if you look hard enough - and my supermarket locally stocks my favourite Russian vodka - which was tough to get in the UK!

Cheeses: Fauchon has all those cheeses (I don't buy them often myself, but they are there) as do several other shops (like Cheese and Fizz in Shanghai). Of course french cheeses are best represented! Supplies and ripeness are variable but no one I know buys that stuff regularly! There's adequate Chinese cheeses too... our locally-made mozzarella is quite good in fact!

Charcuterie: Have to be careful here as meat imports into China are restricted. However, there are some good local products made in the style - like Sefter's White Munich sausages and their porchetta. Both good. There are laws afoot to allow imports of raw ham (I sat next to a Spanish Chamber of Commerce guy last week at dinner and we discussed the implications for pata negra!).

The rule in China is - if you see it, buy it!

Importation companies are VERY hard to set up here. I know of one specialist Italian food and wine company that were hoping to set up operations by Nov last year.... they'll be delayed over a year. That's typical here.

Bribery helps, I've heard.

Really! It is much less hassle to get Western stuff here than Chinese stuff outside of China. I love being here because I grew up fairly internationally and there are all the brands here from every continent I've been to

You can even get Betty Crocker frosting in a can at my local "foreigners" supermarket

The biggest supply shortage here is for other Asian cuisines - particularly Indian and South-east asian.

If you've any more questions, please PM me before I bore everyone to death!!!!!!!

[Fengyi]

Fengyi, excellent stuff...your remark about having 2 fish and chips places reminds me of being in HK listening to an interview on the radio with the Brit who was a partner in one of them....she related that her local partner was extremely enthusiastic about the taste of fish and chips when he'd been interviewed in Beijing, but she thought it would be better if he didn't say that they were delicious but that if you ate too much you would vomit....

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I just gave a wine tasting in one of them last week - it was funny watching some of the Chinese crowd trying to figure out how to eat it out of the newspaper wrappings!

No one them vomited though - so that was a good sign! I agree it's not the best advertising slogan is it?

I paired the fish and chips with four different wines - and one had to be red because red wine is SO important here.

It's hard to find a red wine to match fish and chips!!! (I went with a chilled light Saumur!)

[Peter Green]

Bribery helps, I've heard.

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"What! Gambling, here in Casablanca?"

Ah, next year should be a good trip.

[insomniac]

Fengyi, I'm very curious about the local (and expat) attitude to pollution in food, particularly meat and seafood. Do your friends worry about what they are eating? Especially as Yang Shumin (ex-controller of doping in sports for the Olympics ...hmmm wonder why he is ex??) warned that athletes competing in the Olympics might fail their drugs tests if they ate out in restaurants because of the common practice of pumping meat full of anabolic steroids......I must admit I avoid seafood in HK now.

[Makan King]

Hi Fengyi, by the fish and chips place, you mean the Fish Nation, with branches in Nanluoguxiang and Sanlitun, right?

And I agree that the Tree, the pizza place in Sanlitun, has an excellent selection of Belgian beers, certainly wider than a number of pubs I've been to in Brussels. Morels has a nice but smaller selection as well.

Having moved to London from Beijing, I find that I really like the Sainsbury's and Waitrose supermarkets here. The range of foodstuffs is fantastic, and the range of ready-prepared meals, including those at M&S, beats what is available in Beijing hands down, I think.

Do you go regularly to any supermarkets in Beijing, such as Carrefour (I preferred the branch in Shuangjing), Bonjour, Wal-Mart, or the really nice ones in Pacific Century Place or the mall where Fauchon is located, or the local Jinkelong?

Which is your favorite Peking duck restaurant? I was partial to Made in China at the Grand Hyatt and the branch of Da Dong in Nanxincang, as well as Liqun for its hutong atmosphere.

Have you been to Tianjin Bai Jiao Yuan for jiaozi (dumplings)? Their crab roe jiaozi are one of my all-time favorite eats in Beijing!

And finally, have you noticed any changes in the attitudes of Beijingers towards wine? When I first arrived, they served local red wine automatically mixed with Sprite or 7-Up!

[Peter Green]

Fengyi, I'm very curious about the local (and expat) attitude to pollution in food, particularly meat and seafood. Do your friends worry about what they are eating? Especially as Yang  Shumin (ex-controller of doping in sports for the Olympics ...hmmm wonder why he is ex??) warned that athletes competing in the Olympics might fail their drugs tests if they ate out in restaurants because of the common practice of pumping meat full of anabolic steroids......I must admit I avoid seafood in HK now.

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Oh, that sounds good! I can't wait to get back! I'll be buff (finally).

[Laksa]

There's hundreds of companies importing wine into China into what is NOT a big market.

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Why do you think there isn't a bigger market for wine in China? Is it simply because imported wine is more expensive, or is there another explanation? Do higher prices pose a problem for other imports like beer, hard liquor and cheeses? How about designer goods and luxury cars?

Curious to know how big the "silly money" class is. Big enough to make the import businesses profitable?

How common is it to see wine lists in restaurants? How about in those serving Chinese food?

What are your thoughts on pairing wine with Chinese food?

Hooters in Beijing? I don't believe it. Please provide photographic evidence.

[gini]

fengyi, I'm really looking forward to this blog! Some of my family are originally from Shanghai and one of my dear colleagues just moved to the US from Beijing. I'm looking forward to seeing it through your eyes!

[MissAmy]

China has changed SO MUCH in the past ten years, it's unreal! When I lived in China (Nanjing) we had to "import" in almost everything you've metioned being readily avaliable. Wine? Forget about it. My family always bought huge amounts at the duty free in Hong Kong and VERY CAREFULLY packed it into our suitcases. Cheese? Same story. We weren't eating pastry unless we made it ourselves. (My mom became quite the baker.) We eventually found a dairy that provided us with milk (non-hemogonized, the best milk I've ever tasted) and some yoghurt when they had it (unsweetened, forget about any sorts of flavors). Seeing all this stuff that is just at your finger tips now is amazing. At the same time, I'm glad I got to experience "old school" China.

I miss Chinese food so much I can hardly stand it. That hot pot dinner really brought out some longings. I really hope you go out for dumplings at least once during this blog. I'd be happy just to look at pictures at this point.

Can you still go to the open air market in Beijing and get all the cool (and WEIRD) snack foods?

[crustybread]

China has changed SO MUCH in the past ten years, it's unreal!

It really is unreal. My parents went to Shanghai last year and they told me about all the new buildings, Wal-Marts, restaurants, clubs, etc, there were in Shanghai. I was very very jealous because I didn't get to see it for myself. It's been nearly 6 years since I was last in Asia..

I need to take a trip to China. Like right now. I'm hungry for some amazing food.

Edited March 25, 2008 by crustybread (log)

[MissAmy]

I need to take a trip to China. Like right now. I'm hungry for some amazing food.

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Same here! Hey, any of you import/export people on eGullet: I think you just found two willing assistants who are familiar with the country and the language.

[kbjesq]

If you've any more questions, please PM me before I bore everyone to death!!!!!!!

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Not a chance! I'm reading every word with great interest. Great blog so far, and I'm excited for more.

You mentioned that your husband doesn't read Chinese. How much of an impediment does this create for him in day-to-day living? How hard would it be for someone who neither reads nor understands Chinese to get about for a few weeks?

I love the photos of your home-cooked noodle/squid dish. When you cook at home, do you use a wok?

Thanks for blogging this week. Your life is both fascinating and enviable!

[Kent Wang]

Hi! I really don't find that there is any Western food that I can't get here.... (excepting the few above- mango chutney!). But to answer you fully:

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Thanks so much for answering my questions so thoroughly. I'm very surprised that you can get so much of those things in China. Are the consumers mostly expats or are there locals interested too? Belgian beer especially seems like an expat-only thing.

[Fengyi]

Gosh! I didn't realize that I'd be hit by so many questions

Especially as I've just got up following a heavy night (It's not easy keeping up with Russians in the wine trade...they just have more culturally-determined stamina for drinking than myself!)

But just to answer a few questions (while sucking down coffee!):

kbjesq: It is hard to survive *well* here without Chinese. Of course many people do! But it really does help in certain situations (plumbing breaks, delivery services, etc...) What is very helpful is that I also read and write Chinese which is not as common - but again very useful. I think, though, it's more useful to have a good grasp of Chinese culture before coming. It astounds me what some ex-pats say about Chinese behaviour because sometimes it's clear that they don't 'get' it at all.

Whereas, when I arrived here first ten years ago, I immediately felt at home because so many people were like my mother!

We do use a wok - even to cook beef stroganov (sp?) which is one of our favourite home-cooked meals because the sour cream here is SO awesome!

MissAmy: it has indeed changed beyond measure - for wine, joining the WTO made a big influence. for the rest - well, even my great-auntie thinks using olive oil to cook with is the bee's knees! And Beijing, with its embassies and their staff, has things from everywhere now that trade restrictions have become a wee bit easier.

In fact, I'm going out for Russian food for lunch (yes, more entertaining of the Russian wine people!). The dumplings will included at some point!

Laksa: I've written a 2,000 word research about why the Chinese dont' buy a lot of pricey wine recently for my WSET diploma! There's alot of reasons - price is one. The hard import liquor is cheap - I get my Standart vodka for only 98RMB - cheaper than wine! My husband and I are currently working on a That's Beijing (we are the wine columnists for That's BJ - the largest ex=pat magazine here) article about wine service in Beijing. Currently wine lists at Chinese restaurants are pretty terrible - mainly because the wines are there through kickbacks by import company *(corruption....China....golly!). Wine lists at European places are much better!

As for Chinese food and wine - that was the topic of our last month's column, which you can read as a pdf in its full glory on:

Article on Matching Food and Wine

We also suggest three wines as possible pairing for Chinese food - including one made just outside Beijing!

insommiac: with regard to contamination - people are getting very worried about that - particularly with meat and eggs. Now all the supermarkets sell special meat (like the yoghurty pork) that is supposed to be 'clean' and lots of eggs that proclaim to be hormone-free, etc....

The food quality here is STILL a big issue. I was told never to buy soy sauce,vinegar, etc... from markets as they were guaranteed to be fake.

Makan King: Your restaurant questions will appear slowly over the course of the blog - I hope!

But YES I do MISS Waitrose!!! Not Sainsburys, not Tescos...but WAITROSE. So clean, so civilized! I personally never bought a lot of ready meals - but here I use restaurant delivery much more so I guess ready-meals aren't really suitable for the market here as delivery is so much better than in the UK. Also - no ovens here makes a difference! Doesn't it?

[Kent Wang]

How about some pics of your kitchen? Is it a typical Chinese one with less than half of the amenities we've come to expect in the West?

[Fengyi]

How about some pics of your kitchen? Is it a typical Chinese one with less than half of the amenities we've come to expect in the West?

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I've actually posted one already on the 'small kitchens' thread. One thing that we have got that I'm proud of is that our burner has FOUR rings. That is very upmarket!!!

[MarketStEl]

Pardon me, but:

Mango chutney "Western" food?

Mangoes are tropical fruit, and I thought that chutneys made their way to Britain from India.

Ah, the wonders of assimilation!

[Fengyi]

Wine Dinner at Aria:

Last night was courtesy of a very good wine importers: Globus Wines based in Shanghai and owned by two lovely Russians: Alexey and Galina. Last night they were in Beijing and treated us to a range of their wines at the fine restaurant Aria (where the manager, Danny Kane, an excellent sommelier by training also tried them).

I thought this would be an example of the 'highest dining' that you can get here in Beijing with respect to Western food. May be a bit of a contrast with the up=coming 'dinner at the relatives' house that I am planning!

We had a Riesling Auslese from 2005 to go with an amuse of seared foie gras (Danny's brilliant idea when the bottle of Egly-Ouriet Champagne they bought turned out corked necessitating some quick changes):

The foie gras is Chinese foie (duck). I find it indistinguishable from French foie.

BTW, please don't attack me re: ethics of foie gras!! I do feel that there are a lot more important problems in China than duck welfare.....

Besides which, I really like it. And since it's Chinese-made, it's affordable!

Then some citrus-cured salmon (which really didn't go with the Cali Chardonnay that was next but my greed for raw salmon outweighed that!!!)

(sorry for blurry pictures - the lighting level was a bit dim... that's my excuse!)

The wine was Landmark Damaris Reserve 2004 Chardonnay Sonoma - made by the John Deere family!

The salmon was very nice - I think it came from Norway. Most of the salmon here does - though there is some wild in Northern China.

Aria also offers caviar from Harbin sturgeon (in Heilongjiang) which I've always longed to taste but haven't yet!

The main was braised beef cheeks with bean and bacon:

while my husband got the pigeon in pastry - which was really lovely!

with an Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Monosoli Single Vineyard 2001. A bloody spectacular wine!

By this point, I was stuffed, but I took a picture of the cheese menu so that you could get an idea of the cheeses that we can get now in Beijing (it's pretty good!)

Of course, this all comes at a cost. A meal here is about equal to a month's wages of a low-level worker in Beijing. But according to Danny, the clientèle is NOT predominantly ex-pat but rich local Chinese (up to 70%) who come for the fine dining experience.